Men's soccer: The Highlanders will have to fill the void left after graduating their top two scorers and all-region selections Norberto Ochoa and Michael Salazar. Also gone is goalie Ashkan Khosravi. Vincent Morales did play eight games in goal last season. Seniors Tyler Miguel and Mario Lomeli are the top returning offensive players.

Women's soccer: The team returns home Friday after opening the season with a 0-0 overtime draw at San Jose State and a 2-1 loss at San Francisco. Alanna Guzman has started both games in goal for UCR. The Highlanders have been outshot 27-13 over the first two games with Tayler Dragoo scoring the lone goal.

Cross country: The Highlander women's team has produced the past two Big West champions with Faith Makau winning last season and Raquel Hefflin earning the title in 2014. Makau will try to make it a three-peat as both teams try to improve on last year's finish. The women placed fourth at the Big West championships and the men's team was seventh. This year's conference meet is in Hawaii as the UC Santa Barbara men and Cal Poly women will look to defend their titles.

RIVERSIDE – As freshmen, Maddie Hubbell, Cristina Maietta and Fabiana Rosas knew what they were getting into when they joined the UC Riverside volleyball team.

“(Coach Michelle Patton) told me it wasn’t going to be easy and it hasn’t been,” said Rosas, one of Patton’s first recruits while taking over the Highlander program in 2013. “I’m just glad to finally see the change that’s emerged.”

How big of a change is yet to be determined.

The Highlanders had finished last in the Big West for seven straight seasons and had rarely been competitive against bigger, stronger and more talented conference foes.

That started to change last year.

UCR finished 5-11 in conference and 10-19 overall. Considering the Highlanders were a combined 1-31 in the Big West and 4-52 overall the previous two years, the improvement was significant. As the Highlanders prepare to open the 2016 season on Friday, there’s already been a carryover as Big West coaches picked UCR eighth out of the nine teams in the preseason poll. It’s a modest improvement, but an improvement nonetheless.

Patton credits her three seniors – Hubbell, Maietta and Rosas – for grinding through the tough times and helping to eventually get the program off the ground.

“The first two years it was kind of a rocky start but the third year I feel we broke the barrier and moved forward,” Hubbell said “We want to keep it moving forward.”

Moving forward will be a central theme this year. The Highlanders have 14 freshman and sophomores, and it’s the seniors’ job to mold the youngsters into a class that can continue to grow the program, Patton said.

“We will be young but we’ll have strong senior leadership and we’re counting on those guys to help their teammates adjust and transition athletically, academically and socially to what it takes to be a Division I athlete,” she said. “They (seniors) know the wins don’t come easy … They know you have to learn how to win and now they know what that’s like and are looking to pass it on down.”

Hubbell is a returning first-team all-conference libero. Outside hitter Rosas started since she was a freshman. Setter Chelsea Doyle is back after making the Big West All-Freshman Team last season. Maietta is recovering from an injury, but the remainder of the lineup will be young or untested.

“We do have a lot of young people but at the same time everyone’s feisty to play so our gym is competitive right now,” Rosas said. “That’s something we never had in the past. Constant competition.”

The Big West is expected to again be tough, with Hawaii picked as the favorite and Long Beach State and UC Santa Barbara right behind.

The younger Highlanders may not know about the program’s struggling history, but they do know that 2015 was a pivotal season. The five conference wins were a program Division I best and the 10 overall victories were the most since 2005.

“They all know last year was our best year,” Maietta said. “We continue telling them we need to keep our standards … We all need to have the right mindset and be disciplined on and off the court.”

After finally taking a step forward, all three seniors said they don’t want to see the program slip.

“You go through the hardest times to get to the best times,” Hubbell said.

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